Agenda Item Wording:
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New City Website Update – Review planning process and community outreach for resident feedback.
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Prepared by: Allison M. Mackey, Communications & Brand Manager, 559-713-4535 allisonmackey@visalia.city, Shonna Oneal, Administrative Services Director, 559-713-4053 shonna.oneal@visalia.city
Department Recommendation: It is recommended that the Visalia City Council receive a presentation on the update of the City’s agreement with CivicPlus for web services, current project components, and upcoming community outreach for resident feedback.
Summary:
With the City’s agreement in place with Civic Plus for web services, including a new website, 311 resident service request system, public records request management system, social media monitoring and archiving, and accessibility monitoring, staff have moved forward in preparing and scheduling the implementation of a community outreach plan to receive feedback from the public on the design, function and features of the new City website.
Background Discussion:
The City’s current website was launched in 2015 and at the direction of Council, City staff are now working with the vendor CivicPlus to modernize the City's digital presence, enhance access to services, and foster greater civic engagement with a completely new website.
The City website as it stands now is outdated and increasingly inadequate for meeting current standards. Notably, it lacks optimization for mobile devices, presents difficulties in submitting service requests, and does not comply with upcoming accessibility regulations. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is requiring that websites and mobile applications comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II web accessibility rules. The City must achieve full compliance by April 24, 2026. The new City website will meet these requirements and includes continued monitoring to ensure continued compliance.
Community Outreach Plan
As requirements for government websites have changed, so have the needs and desires of the community. City staff know that community feedback is an important part of the new website planning, design and launch. The goal of the outreach is to inform the community that the planning of a new City website is underway and that we are seeking feedback through a survey and two community meetings.
The public is invited to learn more about the process and the new website that will be built by CivicPlus, with oversight and direction from the City, and how it will provide a modern, accessible, mobile-friendly, website. Utilizing CivicPlus allows the City to consolidate several independent initiatives into a single, efficient platform managed by one vendor. This consolidation will streamline staff responsibilities, reduce costs, and improve service delivery.
Messaging will include information on CivicPlus and that it’s been providing City websites and services for over 25 years, and was selected based on its comprehensive service offering, ease of use, and alignment with City goals. Over 10,000 local governments use their products including City of Bakersfield, City of Modesto, City of Kingsburg, City of East Palo Alto, City of Escondido, City of Santa Rosa, City of Diamond Bar, City of Woodland, City of San Bernardino, City of Arroyo Granda, City of Chino Hills, and many more.
Goals and Objectives
At the Visalia City Council’s 2025 Workshop, the Council’s Strategic Priorities and Goals were set. Three specific sections of the document have items that are connected to the website process underway. These are 1) Growth and Infrastructure 2) Quality of Life and 3) Governance. At the top of this list is the Governance Year One Objective “Select a new website system and begin the transition of the website to be completed by April 2026. This process will include community outreach.”
In total, the website process connects to nine sub-objectives identified by the City Manager, ranging from a community-wide calendar program to consistent and intentional communication with people who may communicate more effectively in other languages.
As previously reviewed by the City Council at the 6/16/2025 meeting, the overall goals of the project include:
- Replacement of Existing Website: Implement a modern, government-focused website platform.
- Technology Upgrade: Leverage up-to-date web, mobile, and social media technologies to enhance civic engagement.
- User Experience: Create a well-designed, intuitive, and easy-to-navigate website that offers a positive user experience.
- Content Management: Provide a streamlined, user-friendly content management system for staff to efficiently publish and manage content.
- Workflow Automation: Implement electronic review, approval, and publishing processes.
- Information Architecture: Redesign the structure and navigation of the City’s website for improved usability and content discoverability.
- Program Compatibility: Ensure compatibility with existing programs and seamless integration with future tools, particularly those enabling virtual services and community engagement.
- Constituent Relationship Management (CRM): Integrate an updated VisaliaWorks with CivicPlus’ SeeClickFix 311 CRM tool that allows residents to submit questions or service requests and centralizes all related communication, documentation, and task tracking serving as a new digital customer service module.
- Visual Identity: Develop a visually cohesive and brand-aligned website that reflects the City’s logo and color palette.
- Accessibility and Compliance: Ensure full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. This includes review of content quality, broken links and other usability issues, such as color contrast and recommendations on correcting and updating content through AudioEye & Acquia Optimize tools.
- Multilingual Access: Enable content translation to serve non-English-speaking residents and visitors.
- Data Security: Meet security standards consistent with local, state, and federal requirements.
- Content Migration: Migrate all key documents and content from the existing website into the new system.
- Public Records Act Request Management: Allow for the submission and central management of public records requests through NextRequest, the public records request management tool.
- Social Media Management: Archive and oversee multiple official social media accounts through ArchiveSocial, the social media management tool.
These goals will be woven into the community outreach and messaging. City staff has prepared an outreach plan that invites community members to be a part of the planning process by featuring a Community Survey and two community outreach Listening Sessions where community members can join City staff in receiving a brief update on the process and provide feedback on what they would like to see in a new City website.
The plan was reviewed by the internal City of Visalia Website Redesign Committee, which includes representatives from each City Department. It was also reviewed by the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) at their Tuesday, August 12 meeting. The feedback received from the staff Committee, and the CAC was implemented into the New Website Community Survey and the outreach plan.
Website Community Survey
The survey will be hosted on Microsoft Forms and launched on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. The formal announcement of the survey will be released to the public via a press release, a News item on the City website and City social media pages, and notices in City offices.
The Survey will be available in English and Spanish and hosted digitally online at www.visalia.gov/NewWebsite. For those wishing to fill out a paper survey, print copies will be available at City of Visalia Administration Office, City Hall East, City Hall West and the Parks & Recreation Business Office. Once launched, the Website Community Survey will remain open for responses through Wednesday, September 17, 2025.
Listening Sessions & Comments
Two public meetings will be held for those in the community that would like to provide their feedback in-person. New City Website Listening Session #1 will be held on Thursday, September 4 from 6 – 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall West and New City Website Listening Session #2 will be held on Wednesday, September 10 from 6 – 7 p.m. also in the Council Chambers at City Hall West. As requested by the CAC, a call-in option will be provided for those who cannot attend in-person.
Both Sessions will provide a brief presentation followed by the opportunity for questions and open discussion from those in attendance. The goal of the listening sessions is to share details of the project and solicit feedback from community members on what they would like to see on a new City website. From Wednesday, September 3, 2025, through Wednesday, September 17, 2025, community members are also invited to submit comments and feedback to communityfeedback@visalia.gov.
Reviewing the Results
The survey responses, feedback from the listening sessions, and public comments received will be compiled and shared with the project team, which includes the City Website Redesign Committee and CivicPlus.
Fiscal Impact: Funding for supplies required for this outreach and the public meetings is available in the Communications Division budget.
Prior Council Action: 6/16/2025: Authorized the City Manager to enter into a (5) year service and software license agreement with CivicPlus for web services, including a new website, 311 resident service request system, public records request management system, social media monitoring and archiving, and accessibility monitoring, piggybacking the General Services Administration (GSA) Contract GS-35F-0124U, for a total of $570,000. 1/11/2025: Set Strategic Priorities and Goals that included Governence: Communication, Information & Feedback Year One Objective “Select a new website system and begin the transition of the website to be completed by April 2026. This process will include community outreach.” 12/16/24: Council approved appropriating funds for the remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) projects. The approved projects included the website refresh.
Other: None.
Alternatives: Direct staff to extend the community outreach timeline and/or include additional steps as directed by the City Council.
Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):
recommendation
No motion required.
Environmental Assessment Status: N/A
CEQA Review: N/A
Deadline for Action: 9/2/2025
Attachments: 1) Update on the New City Website Planning Process and Community Outreach PowerPoint 2) Outreach Plan for New City Website Feedback Citizen Advisory Committee Handout